Mezzo Cammin: An Online Journal of Formalist Poetry by Women

Samantha Pious

Deconstruction

Judith vaulted past the fence,
brought us acorns from the woods;
Charlotte stitched up little tents,
which Emily and Phillis stood

on twigs we gathered from the pine
beside the blacktop. Mary, who
is good at drawing, she designed
their faces and their clothing too.

The map was Juana's and Christine's.
Lucy laid a row of pebbles.
Karen gave each one a bead
of gold or silver from her necklace

so that they'd have goods to spare.
On Ezra's face was such a grin—
even though the others swear
they didn't see us, he ran in

and trampled it beyond repair.
The teacher always lets him win—
it isn't fair. It isn't fair.
He knows he can't make anything

as good, and so he breaks apart
our cities, watches towers fall,
tears down tents, and calls it art.
Someday he won't exist at all.

But Judith's acorns will grow tall.

Dante

Even now, the gates are closed to you,
though angels follow where your light is bent:

"Soul of a poet, whose mercurial pen
poured out a mirror of the universe,
the High and Low have looked upon your works
and found them functional. By joint decree,
they've granted you a small scriptorium
with all the ink and parchment you will need
to carve new depths for chasms overrun
with health insurance agents, politicians,
developers of AI algorithms—
to give each sin precisely what it's due."

The room was still. Stars whispered in the night.
Below the vaulted ceiling, you sat down to write.

AUTHOR BIO

Samantha Pious is a poet, editor, translator, and researcher. She has translated poems from the French of Renée Vivien and from the Portuguese of Judith Teixeira, which are available, respectively, as A Crown of Violets (Headmistress Press, 2015, revised 2017) and Cactus Flowers (2025). Her translations from the French of Natalie Clifford Barney are forthcoming; a volume of her original poems, Sappho Is Dead, appeared in 2024. She holds a PhD in comparative literature from the University of Pennsylvania.